Airways and Inflammation: Improving the Management of Patients with Asthma e-Newsletter

Faculty

Richard J. Martin, MDChairmanDepartment of MedicineNational Jewish Health The Edelstein Chair in Pulmonary MedicineProfessor of MedicineNational Jewish Health and the University of ColoradoDenver, Colorado

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Program Overview

According to recent epidemiological data, asthma is now at its highest level affecting nearly 30 million people in the United States. The burden of patient symptoms and acute care remain high. Although deaths have decreased in recent years, large national surveys suggest that the need for improved asthma care remains unchanged over the previous decade (by comparison of 2 independent surveys, Asthma in America [1998] and Asthma Insights and Management [2009]). Although new guidelines were released at different times during this period, several issues remain unaddressed that are important considerations when approaching the care of patients with asthma. First, spirometry remains underutilized; second, fewer physicians "always" followed guidelines; and third, a high proportion of treated patients remain "poorly" or "not well controlled" and still utilize urgent care (hospitalizations, emergency department visits, or other urgent care visits). The burden of asthma remains high in this regard and contributes to lower patient quality of life.

This program incorporates best practices for the management of patients with asthma.

Target Audience

This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of allergists, pulmonologists, pediatricians, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other healthcare providers involved in the treatment of patients with asthma.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this educational activity, participants should be able to:

Recognize the clinical importance of underlying inflammation that occurs throughout the entire repiratory tract

Incorporate a stepwise approach for the treatment of patients with persistent asthma

Accreditation Statement

National Jewish Health is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education to physicians.

Credit Designation

This enduring material is no longer available for credit.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

All faculty in a position to control the content of this activity are expected to disclose any or no significant financial interest or other relationship with any proprietary entity producing health care goods or services, with the exemption of non-profit or governmental organizations and non-health care related companies. Our goal is to ensure that there is no compromise of the ethical relationship that exists between those in a position to control the content of the activity and those attending the activity and their respective professional duties.

Significant financial interest is defined as receiving, or in the past twelve months having received, a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest (eg, stocks, stock options or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Financial benefits are usually associated with roles such as employment, management position, independent contractor (including contracted research), consulting, speaking and teaching, membership on advisory committees or review panels, board membership, and other activities from which remuneration is received, or expected. For the purposes of CME accreditation National Jewish Health considers relationships of the person involved in the CME activity to include financial relationships of a spouse or partner.

All CME Educational Activities sponsored by National Jewish Health are reviewed to ensure a balanced and evidence-based presentation by our faculty CME committee. Any potential conflict of interest among program faculty has been identified and resolved according to ACCME guidelines.

Sean Gregory, PhD, hereby states that he or his spouse/life partner do not have any financial relationships or relationships to products or devices with any commercial interest related to the content of this activity or any amount during the last 12 months.

Directions to the Learner

There are no fees for participating in this activity. During the period of February 7, 2013, through February 7, 2014, participants must:

Read the learning objectives and faculty disclosure

Complete the pretest

Study the educational activity

Complete the posttest and evaluation form

Media

Internet

National Jewish Health

For questions about the accreditation of this activity, please contact National Jewish Health at 800-844-2305 or visit www.nationaljewish.org.

Disclosure of Unlabeled Use

This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA. National Jewish Health, Integrity Continuing Education, Inc., and TEVA Respiratory do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications.

The opinions expressed in the educational activity are those of the faculty and do not necessarily represent the views of National Jewish Health, Integrity Continuing Education, Inc., and TEVA Respiratory. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Disclaimer

The information provided at this activity is for continuing education purposes only and is not meant to substitute for the independent medical judgement of a physician relative to diagnostic and treatment options of a specific patient's medical condition.